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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MAY 4, 2021
THE ASTORIAN
•
TUESDAY, MAY 4, 2021
•
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WATER UNDER
THE BRIDGE
COMPILED BY BOB DUKE
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago
this week — 2011
he cause is still unknown for a weekend fi re in down-
town Astoria that caused an estimated $275,000 in
damage.
T he Clatsop County Fire Investigation Team is search-
ing for answers in the burned two-story building with two
upstairs apartments on 13th Street.
The Astoria Fire Department and other local fi re depart-
ments responded to a report of the structure fi re at 3 a.m.
Saturday.
Tenants of the apartment building, located across from
Astoria Indoor Garden Supply, were able to safely evacu-
ate as fi re spread from the basement to the attic and vented
out the roof.
It took 30 minutes to get the fi re under control. But the
building, owned by Rosem arie Paavola, suff ered signifi -
cant damage, estimated at $225,000 for the structure and
$50,000 for contents.
T
Crews tend to a fi re at a building on 13th Street in 2011.
Today marks something of a journalistic mile-
stone in Astoria, which is celebrating the bicen-
tennial of its founding.
It was May 1, 1876, that saw the town’s fi rst
daily newspaper. The Daily Astorian hit the
streets. The four-page broadsheet was the prog-
eny of DeWitt Clinton Ireland, “D.C.” to family
and friends.
The Astorian’s history traces back three years
earlier, to July 1, 1873, when Ireland gave the
town its fi rst newspaper, the Tri-Week ly Asto-
rian. H is career as a pioneering peripatetic news-
paperman precedes that by years.
His work was not uncommon in the 19th
century. Publishers frequently packed up their
presses and moved on to seek fortune in the lat-
est boomtown.
Some places are rocky. Others, more steep.
But some are just fi ne, says Brett Estes, Astoria’s com-
munity development director. T he city has fought to bring
buildable land in Astoria back.
With the city’s hills and rocky structure in some areas,
the state had declared them buildable or not buildable —
from 30,000 feet in the air.
W hen all you’ve got is a map to lead you, that mistake
can easily be made. That’s where consultant Patrick Wing-
ard co mes in.
The city connected with Wingard, who took to the
streets, conducting surveys of buildable lands on foot. The
state requires all cities with an urban growth boundary to
have buildable residential and employment land to meet
the city’s 20-year demand. If they don’t, the urban growth
boundary has to expand.
The city challenged the state to declare lands buildable
— or not buildable — from an on-the-ground perspective.
The city won.
“It’s a project that we’ve been working on for several
years,” Estes said. “We needed to get true and accurate
numbers. The way that the land inventory for development
is traditionally done, they weren’t accurate. So we changed
that.”
50 years ago — 1971
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Anti-war demonstrators
fought police in a six-hour series of skirmishes on the capi-
tal’s streets today. Rush-hour traffi c was snarled. T he arrest
of more than 6,000 protesters frustrated their eff orts to par-
alyze the nation’s government.
LONG BEACH, Wash. — Between 10,000
and 15,000 people crowded into Long Beach Sun-
day to watch probably the largest Loyalty Days
parade in the Pacifi c Northwest.
More than 100 entries — and more the 2,000
people — marched and rode in the parade,
according to Quentin Herwig, publicity chair-
man. The s weepstakes winner was the North
Olympic Highlanders Bagpipe Band from Port
Angeles, Washington.
The weekend’s varied events were climaxed
with a Loyalty Days program following the
parade, with Washington state Secretary of
State Albert Ludlow Kramer III as the featured
speaker.
“What we see here represents what America is
all about,” Kramer said. “It seems especially fi t-
ting at this time in history, because so many peo-
ple have began to question America and what
America is for. I hope today will be the beginning
of loyalty week, loyalty year, loyalty decade and
loyalty century.”
ILWACO, Wash. — A classic battle of ecology versus
economy took place in Ilwaco Friday and, after it was over,
LEFT: Protesters against the Vietnam War gathered in Astoria in 1971. RIGHT: Warrenton High School students Duane
Mullins, left, and Don Dyer sprinkle their own specially formulated fi sh food into troughs at the Warrenton High School
fi sh laboratory in 1971.
it appeared the ecologists had the upper hand.
The combatants were offi cials of the Port of Ilwaco,
representatives of the Federal Bureau of Sports Fisheries
and Wildlife and the National Marine Fisheries Service.
An interested but non-committed third force in the skir-
mish was the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The battlefronts were the breakwaters of the Port of
Ilwaco’s mooring basin, and a mudfl at and marshland to
the west, where the Port hopes to construct a new moor-
ing basin and parking area. Like most modern warfare,
peace negotiations soon began — over lunch in a down-
town Ilwaco cafe. And like most peace negotiations, there
was lot of talk but nothing much was accomplished.
A walk protesting the country’s continued role
in Vietnam is scheduled to take place Thursday
evening in Astoria, from the fairgrounds to the
post offi ce building.
T he scientifi c answers as to what eff ects fl uorides may
have on salmon may well be aided by an enthusiastic
group of students from Warrenton High School and their
instructor.
Recently completing a planning and laboratory build-
ing project, which has taken 13 years, members of the high
school’s Science and Math Club have received 2,000 fi n-
gerling salmon from the Clatskanie Fish Hatchery for their
experiment.
The g oal of the research program, according to biology
teacher Larry Hallman, is to get fi sh back into the Skipanon
River and to study the eff ects of fl uorides on the salmon.
75 years ago — 1946
Astoria will become an intermediate refueling point
on a new airline fl ying produce from Southern California
to Alaska, according to Ed Parsons, of Astoria, who fl ew
back from Bakersfi eld, California, where he conferred
with promoters of the new enterprise.
Ellis Bunch, of Bakersfi eld, will manage the line, which
will begin operations with two C-47 transports obtained
from the U.S. Army’s surplus stocks.
Parsons made arrangements for the fi rm of Parsons and
Washburn to do the refrigeration installations on the planes
and for Radio and Electronics Inc. of Astoria to install the
necessary radio stations between Southern California and
Alaska for navigation purposes.
Plans are to use Astoria as the only intermediate stop on
the run, provided U.S. N avy permission can be obtained
for use of the county’s naval air station.
W ith 45 light planes landing in Seaside, the
largest fl ight of the Oregon Sportsman-Pilots
Association since World War II was held. The
pilots, coming from Oregon and Washington
state, came at the invitation of Irving Allen and
Elmer Smith, operators of Seaside’s new 1,650-
foot airstrip.
The U.S. N avy’s bureau of yards and docks has noti-
fi ed the City Commission offi cially that it will terminate its
lease on the Astoria Column property June 30, City Man-
ager James O. Convill told the City Commission.
Convill declared that he has notifi ed the Navy that
extensive damage was done to the Column property and
that the city will seek reparations.
The Column has been so defaced by obscene writings
that much repainting must be done before it is fi t to show
visitors, Convill said. Two buildings left there by the Navy
must be removed.
In the near future, the Astoria garbage dump
will not be run like a gold rush strike.
It is the intention of the city to post a guard
over the proposed new site, where garbage will be
buried in a trench dug by a bulldozer. This polic-
ing is routine in other cities. It has been planned
for some time and did not result from the recent
investigation of the dump by the U.S. N avy.
One city offi cial said that if the garbage was
valuable, the city would sell what could be dis-
posed of. The offi cial regarded garbage left in the
city dump as city property.
There are no existing U.S. Navy regulations which
would permit civilian use of the Clatsop County airport on
a joint Navy-port maintenance agreement after the Astoria
naval air station goes on a caretaker basis June 1, authori-
ties of the 13th naval district informed the Astorian-Budget.
The question of the future of the airport, brought to a
head by the pending change in the air station’s status, has
been causing some concern to local aviation interests and
to the Port of Astoria commissioners.
LEFT: This visiting band was in the spotlight at the annual Loyalty Days Parade in Long Beach in
2011. ABOVE: Seen from the air in 2011, Astoria appears to have a sizable amount of undeveloped
land on the eastern end of the city around the Astoria Column. When assessed from the ground,
some lands are not buildable because of slopes, wetlands and access to utilities.